Belarus

MINSK, 14 January (BelTA) – Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko signed decree No.15 “On responsibility for nuclear damage” on 14 January, the press service of the head of state told BelTA.

The document creates a mechanism to ensure financial assurance for damage caused by an activity involving nuclear energy. The decree limits the liability for damage of the state enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant to 150 special drawing rights per nuclear incident.

Initial construction work at the Belarus nuclear power plant will begin in August or September 2011, First Vice Prime Minister Vladimir Smeashko said on Monday, February 14.

"We are beginning to build a nuclear power plant this year. The preparatory period is drawing to an end, the document has been signed, according to which initial construction work will begin from the end of August or the beginning of September," he said.

The Committee of the Espoo Convention Implementation (on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in a Transboundary Context), acting under the UN Economic Commission for Europe, identified violations, committed by Belarus in the planning of nuclear power plant's construction. In this regard, the international committee recommended the authorities to suspend the NPP construction.

MINSK, 22 January (BelTA) – The construction of the nuclear power plant in Belarus will bring down energy production prime cost by 20%, Deputy Energy Minister of Belarus Mikhail Mikhadyuk said during the online conference on the BelTA website on 22 January.

“The study conducted by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus revealed that after the nuclear power plant is commissioned the prime cost of electric energy production will be reduced by about 20%, the calculations however did not take into consideration the increase in gas prices. The purchase of natural gas will decrease by 4-5 billion cubic meters,” the Deputy Energy Minister said.

Astravets regional executive committee denied public activists Mikalay Ulasevich and Ivan Kruk a right to hold informational pickets at the territory of Astravets district Hrodna region.

They applied to hold 5 informational pickets 9n November (two in Astravets, others in Mikhalishki, Varanyany and Hervyaty) against construction of a nuclear power station in the region, the human rights centre “Viasna” informs.

Minsk, Nov 06, 2008 (BBC Monitoring via COMTEX) -- Seven residents of Hrodna Region's Astravets District have announced their intention to campaign against the government's plans to build a nuclear power plant in the area in western Belarus.

The group is led by Mikalay Ulasevich, a sole entrepreneur and member of the [opposition] United Civic Party.

The Belarusian government’s plans to build a nuclear power plant are fraught with “multiple troubles and ordeals for the people,” Belarusian expert Heorhiy Lepin said at an international conference in Vilnius on October 9.

He described nuclear energy programs as “the most costly and the most hazardous of all power generation technologies.” “This danger is connected not only with the possibility of accidents: a nuclear reactor pollutes the environment during its routine operation,” Dr. Lepin said.

"No more Chernobyl disasters," Kristen Touborg MP writes in Jyllands-Posten. A member of Denmark's Socialist People's Party, Touborg is also deputy chair of the Nordic Council Environment and Natural Resources Committee. The committee visited Chernobyl and the surrounding areas of Ukraine and Belarus during the summer and the impression made by field trip has not diminished her opposition to nuclear power.

VIENNA, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will provide $17 million to help improve safety at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster, and fully decommission it, a top Russian nuclear official said on Monday.

Three reactors of the Chernobyl plant continued to operate for several years after reactor number four exploded in 1986, the last reactor shutting down in 2000. The reactors still contain nuclear fuel rods, and require constant monitoring. The fourth reactor is housed in a Soviet-era sarcophagus set to be replaced by a $1.4 bln metal structure.